thecontaminated.com: Adobe Design Achievement Award Winners 2007

http://thecontaminated.com/adobe-design-achievement-award-winners-2007/

http://www.adobe.com/education/adaa/

Lifehacker: The 20 Best iPod Utilities

http://lifehacker.com/software/feature/the-20-best-ipod-utilities-329507.php
"With a new generation of iPods on the market this holiday season, your reliable old iPod may not seem as shiny as it once did. But with the help of third party applications and utilities, you can unlock tons of useful functionality you never knew was there and revive that aging iPod so it doesn't look quite so bad next to its successors. Whether new or old, the following 20 iPod utilities can help you get the most from your iPod."

a.viary.com: Hacking in the real world

http://a.viary.com/bizblog/posts/hacking-in-the-real-world/
"There is a prevailing attitude amongst creators that it is better to release a prototype and rebuild it the right way if it becomes popular then building it the right way from scratch.

That's foolish, but it's also largely unavoidable, since you can never really know what problems exist with your prototype until their has been mass adoption of it. The Catch 22 is that if your prototype does get properly adopted, it's already too late to rebuild it from scratch.

There's a line at your door and they want immediate attention."

Web Designer Wall: Best of CSS Design 2007

http://www.webdesignerwall.com/trends/best-of-css-design-2007/
"For those who don’t know, I’m also the guy behind Best Web Gallery and N.Design Studio. In 2006, I started Best Web Gallery as a gallery site where I feature the best CSS and Flash sites. I’m glad that I started the project because it gives me the opportunity to keep my design sense up-t0-the-trend. In the past year, I’ve seen a lot of sites from the submissions (some are great, some are horrible). As 2007 is wrapping up, I would like to share the best design sites with you. Here is a list of 50 websites hand-picked from Best Web Gallery — Best of CSS Design 2007."

abduzeedo.com: 2007 GRAPHIC DESIGN INSPIRATION

http://abduzeedo.com/2007-graphic-design-inspiration
"This last december was a bit odd, I was robbed, they took my laptop and 2 iPods, I had all my backups and all my clients jobs in those, for sure one of the most delicate situations in my life, I didn’t know what to do. So I decided to start a blog and save some of the jobs I done and share them with everyone. This would allow me to promote myself too.

In these last 12 months I’ve seen lots of really good designs, they have inspired me and helped me to get over this unfortunate incident. The outcome of that made me think and focus so to celebrate this past year and to welcome the next I decided to post ( in my opinion) 2007 ´s best designs. Enjoy!"

JotSpot to Spawn Google Sites - Can it Make Intranet CMS Dinosaurs Extinct?

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/jotspot_to_spawn_google_sites.php
"A well linked to post over the weekend was Andrew Miller's notes on a Google Apps presentation. The main presenter was Scott Johnston, former VP of Product Development at JotSpot - one of my favorite Web Office apps that was acquired just over a year ago by Google, but has yet to be turned into a Google Apps product. Well apparently JotSpot is being integrated, according to Miller's notes.

JotSpot is/was a very flexible wiki-based product, which had spreadsheeting and other office functionality. Miller reported that it will spawn "Google Sites" in 2008, which "will expand upon the Google Page Creator already offered within Apps." It will be based on JotSpot collaboration tools and will allow businesses to set up intranets, project management tracking, customer extranets, and "any number of custom sites based on multi-user collaboration.""

The Troubles With OpenID 2.0

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_troubles_with_openid_20.php
"Portland, Oregon's JanRain, leaders in the OpenID movement, put on a PR push this week to promote what they say is the imminent approval of OpenID 2.0's final draft. Specifically, they say that they expect the final signatures to be penned on Monday at the upcoming Internet Identity Workshop.

General consensus is that it's the finalization of 2.0 that many big players have been waiting on. Remember when Digg said they would support OpenID, for example? In theory, this is what they and many others are waiting on.

Here's how I explain OpenID. Once you register an OpenID with any of a number of vendors (like JanRain's MyOpenID.com) then you can login with it anywhere that supports OpenID login. You can also use your existing accounts from a growing number of services as an OpenID login, like AIM, Bloglines, WordPress, etc.

What's the value for the user?"

There's No Money In The Long Tail of the Blogosphere

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/blogosphere_long_tail.php
" In 2004 Chris Anderson wrote an influential book called The Long Tail. In it, he argued that the future of business is to sell less of more. The main premise is that collectively, things that are in rather low demand can amount to quite large volumes. This is because there is a large number of people who belong to the long tail and they encompass a wide rage of tastes.

A classic example of successful long tail sales is Amazon. A substantial subset of the book sales for the largest online retailer comes from obscure books. Amazon itself could afford to stock up on rare books as well as offer these via numerous online partners. The net effect is that a lot of book sales occured in the long tail. This phenomenon is captured nicely in a quote from an Amazon employee: "We sold more books today that didn't sell at all yesterday than we sold today of all the books that did sell yesterday.""

Emmanuel Polanco: Portfolio 2001-2007

http://www.emmanuelpolanco.net/portfolio/illustrations.htm#heg
"

Flickr Set: Business Cards

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dailypoetics/sets/72057594104389710/
Great set of business card designs from all over...

Photopreneur: 60 Sources of Inspiration for Photography

http://blogs.photopreneur.com/60-sources-of-inspiration-for-photography
"Are you struggling for new ideas? Do your creative batteries feel as flat and lifeless as a skunk in the fast lane?

Here are 60 ways to breathe new life into your love of photography and re-energize your inspiration."

Simplebits: 404 Hunt

http://www.simplebits.com/notebook/2007/11/03/404.html#comments
"In doing some research for a newish presentation, I’m on the hunt for cool, funny, well-designed and/or useful custom 404 pages. Stumbled across anyone that gets this right? I’d love to see it."

nclud, a creative web design agenhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifcy

http://nclud.com/
"We are a small Washington, DC based agency comprised of highly talented and extremely experienced industry consultants. We live and breathe the web – it is our passion for the industry that is the foundation of our agency.

We are small by design. We have a very selective and intimate team of consultants with extensive experience in all facets of the web. We believe we are stronger together than apart – it is our team’s collective experiences, skills and knowledge that together inclusively create and deliver solutions of the highest caliber."

Youtube: The seceret behind the Bling Fling trick

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9dK53NMpmjQ
Just kind of a cool trick

Bokardo.com: Do Canonical Web Designs Exist?

http://bokardo.com/archives/canonical/
"

“Milton Glaser’s Dylan poster. Paul Rand’s IBM logo. Paula Scher’s Public Theater posters. Massimo Vignelli’s New York subway map. Kyle Cooper’s Seven opening titles. These are only a few landmark projects of our profession. Design solutions that, in their consistent use as exemplary cases of execution, concept and process, don’t even need to be shown anymore and that, for better or worse, (almost) everyone acknowledges as being seminal works that reflect the goals that graphic design strives for: A visual solution that not only enables, but also transcends, the message to become memorable in the eyes and minds of viewers. Whether these projects are indeed as amazing, relevant and enviable as we have built them up to be is cause for a separate discussion but it’s safe to say that, as far as designs recognized around the profession, there are a certain few that invariably make the list, usually without question. Myself, I could list projects in every category from logos, to annual reports, to magazine covers, to packaging, to typefaces, to opening titles that could be considered landmark projects… But when it comes to web sites, I can’t think of a single www that could be comparable — in gravitas, praise, or memorability — as any of the few projects I just mentioned. Could this be?”

Armin then goes and mentions the obvious answer: Google.

But this is not an acceptable answer for him, because…wait for it…the logo sucks."

Zeldman: Understanding Web Design

http://alistapart.com/articles/understandingwebdesign/
"We get better design when we understand our medium. Yet even at this late cultural hour, many people don’t understand web design. Among them can be found some of our most distinguished business and cultural leaders, including a few who possess a profound grasp of design—except as it relates to the web."

Coffee Drinks, Illustrated

http://www.lokeshdhakar.com/2007/08/20/an-illustrated-coffee-guide/
"I‘m new to the world of fancy coffee drinks. With the vast number of ordering options and new words with accented characters to pronounce the coffee shop ordering experience can be intimidating. I’ve created a few small illustrations to help myself and others wrap their head around some of the small differences.

About Espresso

Espresso is prepared by forcing pressurized steam through finely ground dark-roast coffee beans. Think of it is strong, concentrated coffee. You can add extra ’shots’ of espresso to make your drink stronger."

Autodesk Maya: Personal Learning Edition

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=7639525
"Maya Personal Learning Edition (PLE) is a special version of Autodesk® Maya® software, which provides free access to Maya for non-commercial use. It gives 3D graphics and animation students, industry professionals, and those interested in breaking into the world of computer graphics an opportunity to explore most aspects of the award-winning Autodesk® Maya® Complete software in a non-commercial capacity. The Maya Personal Learning Edition software is available for 32-bit Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional and Apple® Mac OS® X (for Macintosh Power PC or Intel-based Macintosh computers) operating systems.

Autodesk Maya PLE is based on Autodesk Maya 8.5."

The Top 20 Ways to Come Up With Amazing Ideas

http://www.skelliewag.org/the-top-20-ways-to-come-up-with-amazing-ideas-157.htm
"I’m a pretty prolific blogger — between regular posts at Zen Habits, and writing regularly for blogs such as Web Worker Daily, FreelanceSwitch, NorthxEast and more, and writing guest posts for other blogs (such as the excellent Skelliewag), I write a lot of posts every week.

And what’s asked of me most often, besides “How can you write so much?”, is the more difficult question: “How do you come up with so many ideas for posts?”

Top Best 50 Firefox Extensions For Web Design

http://www.emmaalvarez.com/2007/11/top-best-50-firefox-extensions-for-web.html
"Each day there are more people that use Firefox. It is much faster than Internet Explorer, and has a lot of extensions and themes. Regarding the extensions, many of them are much more than interesting. Some of them ease the work of designers and developers. Here follows a list of 50 of the best."

Hack Attack : Get Windows XP SP3 Through Windows Update

http://dailyapps.net/2007/11/hack-attack-get-windows-xp-sp3-through-windows-update/
"Well If you have read my previous Hack Attack on How you can download Windows Vista SP1

through a Hack and it worked for you then here is another Hack that will allow you to download Windows XP SP3 RC1 directly from Microsoft. Windows XP SP3 will be the final service pack that we will see for the World’s biggest Operating System from Microsoft. SP3 will bring a host of bug fixes and some new features borrowed from Vista.

Well here is how you can download SP3 straight from Microsoft. Follow the instructions carefully and you’ll be running Windows XP SP3 in no time. Grab yourself a cup of Coffee as you do this.."

The Spiral Data Tato -- A Curiously Complex Origami CD Case

http://www.instructables.com/id/SM0LM6DF9053ZQM/
"The number of times you can zip up and unzip your disk depends on the quality of the paper you use. I like 24 lb. parchment, myself, but you may wish to experiment with what you have on hand.

(Oh, and little nerdy guy? You still with us? This is where the blonde in Calculus 102 goes, "Oooh!" and you get to show her the zipping several times over, until she can do it, herself. That's when you need to start a new topic. Make it good -- you start prosing on about your linux box or your LOTR figurines, this has all been for naught. Offer to teach her the model. There you go.) "

Well Done: a food company annual report that has to be cooked first

http://www.dezeen.com/2007/11/13/well-done-a-food-company-annual-report-that-has-to-be-cooked-first/
"Croatian creative agency Bruketa & Zinić have designed an annual report for food company Podravka that has to be baked in an oven before it can be read."

MSNBC Alpha Channel: Designs we left behind

http://alphachannel.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/11/12/463550.aspx
" Admit it. You saw our new homepage and it lived up to your wildest fantasies about online news presentation. Me, too. Okay, maybe—maybe—two, three people tops will say ‘what were they thinking?!’ Rest assured we were thinking. For about two years. Here’s how it started."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

InsideNews: HOW to pretend to be a "Natural Leader"

http://unitedsys.blogspot.com/2007/11/how-to-pretend-to-be-natural-leader.html
"Some people are always listened to. What they say matter, and everyone pays attention whenever they speak.

Why is that so? There’s an air of authority about their every words and actions, which helps them in getting their point across, when others would not even be heard.

In short, they are what you and I would call “Natural Leaders.”"

Yahoo! Travel: Leftover Loot

http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-20727057;_ylc=X3oDMTFrZXJjazY1BF9TAzI3MTYxNDkEX3MDMjcxOTQ4MQRwb3MDMQRzZWMDZnAtdG9kYXltb2QEc2xrA2xvb3Q
"

Since 9/11, the TSA has collected tons of items at airport security checkpoints. What happens to all that stuff? Here's how to buy TSA contraband.

Since 9/11, the Transportation Security Administration has collected tons of items at security checkpoints; in 2006 alone, screeners took in more than 13 million items. What happens to all that stuff? The TSA turns it over to state surplus property agencies, which tend to sell it online or at retail stores. (Sometimes the contraband is sold in bulk.)

The agencies say they'll reunite you with your prized pocketknife, if they can locate it. But they would much prefer that travelers figure out the rules and abide by them. "Our goal is for passengers not to bring this stuff on anymore, so we won't have to deal with it," says Steve Ekin, Georgia's surplus property division director. Here's where to look, and what you might find."

Read/Write Web: The Social Enterprise - What Works, and What Doesn't

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_social_enterprise.php
" Last week in Reston, Virginia, the New New Internet conference took place, and the spotlight was on the adoption of new social technologies in the enterprise. One morning panel was moderated by Ryan Carson and featured Brad Feld, the Managing Director at the Foundry Group, Hans Hwang, VP Advanced Services, Cisco, and myself. During the course of our discussion, Ryan brought up a set of interesting questions:"

Last 100: NPR opens up NPR Music for our listening pleasure

Many, many years ago, the local National Public Radio Station (NPR) stopped playing music when anybody was actually listening to the radio. I used to tape random chunks of music, not caring what it was, to take with me on trips because it was so good.

When the station stopped broadcasting music when I was awake, and the Internet came along, I turned to NPR’s Web site, its show All Songs Considered, and podcasts to hear interviews with musicians, listen to their music, and find artists I’d never heard before. But, alas, the old NPR site wasn’t much fun to use, especially if you’re on a Mac and don’t care much for RealPlayer or Windows Media.

NPR relaunched NPR Music, and I’m in music heaven again. The new site uses a slick Flash pop-up player that’s super-easy to use and, as an added bonus, works across all NPR properties.

Chris Pirillo: Top 100 Mac Apps

http://chris.pirillo.com/2007/11/06/top-100-mac-apps/
"I’ve compiled a list of my top 100 Mac apps for your perusal, since so many people have been asking for it. Thanks to Taylor Olson and Jason for helping me put all the icons and links in place! These apps are certainly Tiger compatible, and most of ‘em work inside Leopard (though the VNC utilities are now unnecessary). I did my best to avoid overly popular titles, but couldn’t avoid it in some cases.

A rolling list of ‘Honorable Mentions’ follow the Top 100, so… keep reading. ;) Only one application is missing.

I’m also happy to announce that both VMware and Shiny White Box are coming aboard as official video sponsors - but their presence in this list is based on app merit. It’s my hope to find exclusive coupons and pricing for any of the following commercial applications… or any commercial Mac app, for tha tmatter. Stay tuned!"

2006 City Data: Top 101 U.S. Cities, Counties, and Zip Codes Lists

http://www.city-data.com/top2/toplists2.html
" This a follow-up to our popular original top 100 city lists. We've created hundreds new top lists in varied categories. Our forum members have also been ranking U.S. cities in many subjective categories, from the worst reputation and the most stuck-in-time to the cleanest and the most proud. Enjoy!"

Wired: Best of Leopard Is Yet to Come: Innovative Third-Party Apps

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2007/10/cultofmac_1031
"There's been a lot of brouhaha about Leopard, but the most exciting thing about Apple's latest OS upgrade hasn't even arrived yet — a wave of third-party applications that make use of new technologies under the operating system's hood.

Core Animation could prove particularly revolutionary. A powerful programmers' toolkit embedded in Leopard, Core Animation makes it easy to create flashy, animated 3-D interfaces. While some observers dismiss such things as pure eye candy — mere special effects to make the UI pretty — others have said they may herald the most significant advance in computer interfaces since the original Mac shipped 30 years ago."

Fast Company: Motorhead Messiah

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/120/motorhead-messiah_Printer_Friendly.html
“Check it out. It's actually a jet engine," says Johnathan Goodwin, with a low whistle. "This thing is gonna be even cooler than I thought." We're hunched on the floor of Goodwin's gleaming workshop in Wichita, Kansas, surrounded by the shards of a wooden packing crate. Inside the wreckage sits his latest toy--a 1985-issue turbine engine originally designed for the military. It can spin at a blistering 60,000 rpm and burn almost any fuel. And Goodwin has some startling plans for this esoteric piece of hardware: He's going to use it to create the most fuel-efficient Hummer in history.

Goodwin, a 37-year-old who looks like Kevin Costner with better hair, is a professional car hacker. The spic-and-span shop is filled with eight monstrous trucks and cars--Hummers, Yukon XLs, Jeeps--in various states of undress. His four tattooed, twentysomething grease monkeys crawl all over them with wrenches and welding torches."

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/10/30/14161/066

PSD Tuts: Creating an Old-Collage Effect Poster

http://psdtuts.com/designing-tutorials/creating-an-old-collage-effect-poster/
"One of my favourite 'looks' is the sort of old-collage feel of old photos and old paper. It's a favourite because it lets you work images and text together really easily. In this tutorial we'll put together a poster where there is a main photograph and a lot of text using the old-collage feel."

Siolon: Tools For Web Designers

http://www.siolon.com/2007/tools-for-web-designers/
"Everyone, especially computer people, love lists of resources. I do as well, and I decided it’s time to share many of the resources that have helped me in my career. All of these resources (except for the print books) are either freeware, open source, or the application offers a free version.

Even though I don’t list all the resources I’ve find you can browse my del.icio.us account for other resources I’ve bookmarked."

Wake Up Later: 7 Tips on Quoting Freelance Projects

http://www.wakeuplater.com/freelance-lessons/7-tips-on-quoting-freelance-projects.aspx
"One of the tougher aspects of freelancing is making sure you get paid a fair amount for your work. I'm sure every freelancer has at least one story of either getting grossly underpaid or not getting paid at all. So here are seven tips to help you improve your quoting."

Blogging Bits: 54 Typography Resources Every Designer Should Bookmark

http://bloggingbits.com/54-typography-resources-every-designer-should-bookmark/
"If you are a web designer, or a passionate CSS hobbyist, you must be aware of the impact well structured typography can have on your overall design. Though, optimizing your typography to work on old and new versions of plethora of web browsers on various operating systems can prove to be quite a headache. With the following list of resources, you can learn, optimize, and beautify your web typography, and never need to worry about those pesky compatibility issues again (I wish!)."

Free Wallpaper Pattern Brushes™

http://flyguydesigns.com/?p=16
"I had some time this weekend to sit down and crank out some new brushes from some vector stuff I have been doing. Here are some cool high resolution photoshop brushes for free download. Tattoo your print or web designs with this vintage, faux finish, grunge wallpaper, or what ever you want to call them style brushes. There are 32 brushes in this set. This is the first set of a series I am in the middle of working on. Im offering these totally for free so please use the brushes for your own personal use. My designs are not intended for resale. If you use them in your designs please throw some credit my way. Thanks, have fun. Cheers."

sacha grief: How I did it: Blue China

http://www.sachagreif.com/blog/how-i-did-it-blue-china/
"To celebrate the launch of my newest design, I tought I’d explain how I did it and what tools and plugins I used. Not to say that I did anything special. The blog (Blue China) is pretty simple, and not supposed to make it to the top of all CSS galleries overnight (although it would be cool if it did). But even so, I think designers are always interested in seeing how others work.

At least I know I am. Reading about how a master webdesigner like Jesse Bennet-Chamberlain redesigned the Expression Engine site was a great source of inspiration, and made me realize the importance of icons in web design. And reading about some high school kid designing his Dragon Ball Z fan site (no, I’m not talking about myself, I’m not in high school anymore !) can give you that warm feeling of knowing that some people are even worse at design than you are."

roscripts.com: Tableless forms

http://www.roscripts.com/Tableless_forms-112.html
"I consider this a very important step in learning web design the right and straightforward way. CSS is no longer just a way of adding some simple styles to an element in your page. More and more web designers work very much with styles in order to create a unique and easy to maintain website.

You can see some inspirational examples by visiting a gallery like CSSREMIX or cssdrive. Those are CSS galleries that won't showcase just any kind of website. The design must be unique, CSS based, valid, XHTML etc. It's a great starting point if you're into learning to design."

Apartment Therapy NY: Best Products: Ikea Countertop With Vika Legs

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/tables-dining-occasional/best-products-ikea-countertop-with-vika-legs-007644
"We just built one for our office.

In the annals of great Ikea DIY products, this desk/table solution is one of our favorites, as well as one that is so clean that it can fit into a fancy home or a student's digs.

Enter Slideshow

Take the Vika Inge legs by Olle Lundberg which will only run you $40 and, rather than fiberboard & laminate, skip over to the kitchen section and get the Pronomen solid wood countertops which will only run you about $49 and come in multiple lengths and widths. Then put the two together."

456 Berea Street: Using JavaScript instead of target to open new windows

http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200605/using_javascript_instead_of_target_to_open_new_windows/
"In my recent post about The target attribute and opening new windows, I stated that when I am faced with no other choice but to open a link in a new window, I prefer using unobtrusive JavaScript instead of the target attribute. The reason is that I always use a strict doctype, which does not allow the target attribute.

What I did not say was exactly how the script I use is constructed, but I guess I should have. A few people commenting on the post thought that I was suggesting the use of JavaScript to insert the invalid target attribute simply to hide it from the W3C Markup Validator. Cheating to pass validation is not what I am proposing."

Nitrome: Flash games

http://www.nitrome.com/
Nitrome: Flash games

Freelance Folder: 25 Reasons Yuo Didn't Get the Gig

http://freelancefolder.com/25-reasons-you-didnt-get-the-gig/
"These are some personal observations, reasons I probably would click away, not hire someone, not call back.

Combined with some personal experiences, and some reasons I believe I didn’t get a gig at some point. Gotta learn from our mistakes. :)"

thuiven.com: 35 website footer designs, trends and styles.

http://www.thuiven.com/viewentry/35-footer-designs/
"As you might already know, good web design - in most cases - should contain basic elements such as easily used (yet beautiful) navigation menus, attracting headers, well written content, and for last, footers. In this post I would like to talk more about the last element that is becoming a very fascinating issue these days - the kinds and styles of footers."

Escapist Magazine: Zero Punctuation: Super Paper Mario

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/2563-Zero-Punctuation-Super-Paper-Mario
"Yahtzee is a British-born, currently Australian-based writer and gamer with a sweet hat and a chip on his shoulder. When he isn't talking very fast into a headset mic he also designs freeware adventure games and does the occasional feature for Australia's Hyper Magazine. His personal site is www.fullyramblomatic.com."

Photoshop Roadmap: 100 Awesome High Resolution Photoshop Brushes

http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/Photoshop-blog/2007/10/25/100-awesome-high-resolution-photoshop-brushes/
"Lets dive today into a sea of brushes. Hundreds of thousands of sets are lying undiscovered like pirate treasures all over the web. Due to this phenomenally vast amount of Photoshop brushes available, directories are becoming very popular lately.

Designers are collecting them like mad. Not to mention that finding the most unique or bizarre set is a must.

And believe me, in this case, size does matter… So, here’s my contribution to all the Photoshop brushes starving hordes of designers and artists, including myself: 100 Awesome High Resolution Photoshop Brushes. And don’t forget to check the list of brushes sites and directories at the end of the article!"

Vandelay Design: 25 Beautiful Minimalistic Website Designs

http://www.vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/minimalistic-web-design/
"It seems that everyone has a different opinion of what qualifies as a minimalistic design. Here are 25 websites that make use of very little unnecessary design elements but still manage to pull off a beautiful appearance. When it comes to design, if you feel that less is more, I’m sure you will find inspiration from these sites."

Vector Magic: The online tool for precision vectorization

http://vectormagic.stanford.edu/
"This site traces bitmap images, turning them into beautiful vector art. Just upload your image and we will convert it for you."

Pop Design Works

http://www.popdesignworks.com/
Interactive media design from Cincinatti, Ohio

Recycled Area: Freelance Graphic Design, Italy

http://www.recycledarea.co.uk/index.php
Alberto Seveso, Freelance Graphic Design, Italy

four5one:

http://www.four5one.ie/
Designer for music artists, including a lot of work for U2

10 Necessary Mac Apps for the College Student

http://dbachrach.com/blog/2007/09/17/10-necessary-mac-apps-for-the-college-student/
"Going through the first few weeks of college, I’ve found a few apps that have made my university life so much easier. Some of these apps will be things you have heard of. Hopefully, some will be new to you. Most of the apps have been designed for a much larger audience, but greatly help college students in particular."

Full Color Screen Printing with Photoshop

http://www.screensilk.com/2007/01/full-color-screen-printing-with-photoshop/
"If you have read my article, “The Secrets to Full Color Screen Printing”, than you already understand the underlying principles to 4 color screen printing. In that article we discussed the principles of the CMYK color model, color separations, halftones, and lines per inch (LPI). In this tutorial, we are going to take what we have learned, and using photoshop, quickly create color separations for output to transparencies for screen printing."

Search Engine Optimization And The Magic Fairy Dust

http://mybasepage.com/p.php?id=b6ynue
"There is only one thing that all webmasters agree upon... They all want to be at the top of the search engine results for search terms that will drive traffic and consumers to their website. The search engines are like our childhood game of King Of The Hill"

I Have a New Favorite Web Browser: Flock

http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/005768.html
"More than two years ago, I blogged about the preview version of Flock, a browser, built with Mozilla Firefox at its core, with a social bent. I said it showed promise and said I'd keep an eye on it.

And then...the Flock folks failed to release a final version and I sort of forgot about it. Two years later, this browser still isn't available in final form. But I've been using the iteration billed at the beta version of Flock 1.0--available for download here--for the past few days. And I'm so impressed that I've done something I didn't see myself anytime soon: I've dumped Firefox as my primary gateway to the Web. For now, I'm using Flock as my default browser on both my desktop Vista machine and my MacBook portable, and thoroughly enjoying the experience."

Job Aggregators

http://www.simplyhired.com/

http://www.jobster.com/

http://www.indeed.com/

An Event Apart San Francisco: Day One and Day Two Notes

http://www.silverstripe.com/aneventapart-san-francisco-day-one/
http://www.silverstripe.com/aneventapart-san-francisco-day-two/
"A day into Alistapart's intimate web conference, AnEventApart San Francisco 2007, and its clear where the industry is focusing: with the battle for web standards now entrenched, consideration can go into content (aka copy) strategy, as well enlightening the rest of us busy souls of some interesting coding and design tricks."

YouTube: The Real Hustle - Bartender Scams

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfNXcVLjaDc

YouTube: CHESS MASTER GARRY KASPAROV EXPLAINS POLITICAL NATURE OF OIL

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LQYyPooETcI
Gary Kasparov interviewed by Bill Maher.

PSD Tuts: Applying a Realistic Tattoohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

http://psdtuts.com/photo-effects-tutorials/applying-a-realistic-tattoo/
"Our first guest tutorial comes from Arik, if you'd like to write a tutorial read more about how you can contribute.

There are lots of tutorials on the web that claim to achieve a realistic tattoo effect. Usually these tutorials instruct the user to import an image they want to use as a tattoo and to set it to overlay. Out of experience I can say that this does NOT look like a tattoo. It looks like...well...an overlayed image.

In this tutorial I will be demonstrating an advanced technique to achieve a realistic tattoo. We will be using masks, adjustment layers, displacement maps and several brushing skills will be applied."

Content, the King of Missed Opportunities

http://www.blogaboutcrafts.com/index.php?/archives/69-Content,-the-King-of-Missed-Opportunities.html
"I recently blogged about how having Adsense or other affiliate advertising on a business site can lead to reduced sales - see Adsense Kills Business.

One of the people who visited mentioned that they wanted 'to get something from the people who came' and didn't buy. This got me to thinking about the many sites I've seen where they have quality content that is well-written and informative, but fails to do it's job."

Fast Company: The Tao of Steve: Why We Keep Buying Apple Products

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/119/the-tao-of-steve.html
"The column you're reading right now was typed on an Apple PowerBook G4 whose fan is only slightly quieter than a Formula One racing car and which crashes in an equally spectacular yet horrifying manner. My previous Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) laptop began falling apart week one, when a flimsy plastic key on the flimsy plastic keyboard abandoned its tenuous hold and took a suicidal leap onto the nether regions of its owner's desk. Other keys, perhaps despairing of their own mediocrity, eventually followed suit."

Fast Company: Magic Shop: Are your frontline employees going to save or kill your most important quarter? At Apple, nothing is left to chance.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/120/magic-shop.html
"Day one at my new job. Sporting white headphones, I am plugged into a computer watching Ridley Scott's awe-inspiring "1984" Macintosh ad, reviewing the company history, and getting pumped up about my new workplace. Like most of my coworkers, I'm already a loyal fan of the company, so starting this job will take my interest to the next level. I'm working as a Mac specialist at the Apple Store."

Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik (Kick Butt With Internal Site Search Analytics)

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/
"I love Internal Site Search data.

It is a amazing peek into customer intent, which usually is quite elusive in our normal clickstream data.

I had first written about the wonders of site search analysis in a June 2006 post: Are You Into Internal Site Search Analysis? You Should Be. It is also covered in detail in Web Analytics: An Hour A Day."

Times Online: Google. Who's looking at you?

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article2688404.ece
"In the blissed-out California sunshine, the glistening glass-and-steel curves of the Googleplex seem to sweep you up off the pavement with the promise of a glimpse into the future – and a good time. It is 8am on a Monday morning and battalions of high-tech foot soldiers arrive at the gilded palace of the online revolution. Laptops and lattes in hand, they step off conga lines of biodiesel-powered buses, chatting loud and fast about the latest skyrocketing Silicon Valley start-ups, which have names that sound like Teletubbies: Jajah, Orgoo, Ningo. Geek by geek, they head inside to begin surfing and controlling the quadrillions of bytes of information that surge through Google’s giant servers, and which crash on to our desktops and mobile phones every minute of every day."

Go Mediazine: Rule Three: Contrast, Contrast, Contrast

http://www.gomediazine.com/design-tip/rule-three-contrast-contrast-contrast/
"Good contrast in your design goes hand-in-hand with your color selections. Contrast is the value difference between the colors on your design. Value is how bright or dark the color (ink) is. Ever see a blank white canvas and as a joke someone says: “Hey – it’s a white cow in a snow storm!” This is an example of no contrast. White on white is no contrast – you can’t see anything."

PSDTuts: Elements of Great Web Design: The Polish

http://psdtuts.com/designing-tutorials/elements-of-great-web-design-the-polish/
"When I put together designs I usually do so in two phases - Layout and Polish. During the layout phase I place the main objects on the page usually finishing with something that looks relatively complete. In the second stage - the Polish - I go over the design and adjust colours, type treatments, shadows, layers, and generally clean it all up. In this first of a series of tutorials on web design, we'll be looking at the Polish."

Inc.com: Turning Browsers Into Browsers

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20070901/turning-browsers-into-buyers.html
"Anyone who does business online worries about how to boost Web traffic. But traffic is only part of the story. Equally important is the conversion rate--the percentage of customers who actually buy something. On average, companies report that only 3 percent of Web surfers actually buy, according to a survey by Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation."

Tablecloth: table elements with style

http://cssglobe.com/lab/tablecloth/
"Tablecloth is lightweight, easy to use, unobtrusive way to add style and behaviour to your html table elements. By simply adding 2 lines of code to your html page you will have styled and active tables that your visitors will love :) Try to mouseover or click on a table below."

Virtual hosting blog: Webmaster Intel Basics: 25 Tools to Compile an In-Depth Dossier on a Competitors’ Site

http://www.virtualhosting.com/blog/2007/webmaster-intel-basics-25-tools-to-compile-an-in-depth-dossier-on-a-competitors-site/
"Your rankings don’t just depend on how good your site is. They depend on the quality of your competitors’ sites as well. As a result, keeping an eye on your competition should be a regular part of every webmaster’s tactical plan. Use these 25 tools to get the lowdown on their sites."

Smashing Magazine: 30 Usability Issues To Be Aware Of

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/10/09/30-usability-issues-to-be-aware-of/
"You don’t have to agree upon everything. As a professional web developer you are the advocate of your visitors’ interests and needs; you have to protect your understanding of good user experience and make sure the visitors will find their way through (possibly) complex site architecture. And this means that you need to be able to protect your position and communicate your ideas effectively — in discussions with your clients and colleagues. In fact, it’s your job to compromise wrong ideas and misleading concepts instead of following them blindly."

100 (Legal) Sources for Free Stock Images

http://www.virtualhosting.com/blog/2007/100-legal-sources-for-free-stock-images/
"If you’ve ever tried to design a website or blog, you’ve probably felt the need to add images to your creation. It can be easy to see the Internet as a free-for-all, but images belong to the people who created them. Staying legal means you’ll have to either create your own images or buy them from stock sites. Fortunately, there are a number of sources for free images, and we’ve collected them here. So read on for 100 sources where you can find free stock images: and don’t worry — they’re all legal!"

muse: a collection of inspiration

http://muse.drewwilson.com/
" Muse is a project designed and developed by Drew Wilson. My reason for developing Muse was to create a gallery where the focus is on the Artist, rather than simply the Art.
I have often wondered what inspires great artisits/creators, and that is where Muse came from. Muse will not only showcase great art, but it will also attempt to showcase the inspiration behind the art. And ultimaely the inspiration of great artists/creators.

My intention is keep keep Muse as fresh as absolutely possible. Meaning more new content, more often. New Showcases will be added as often as possible, but that all depends on how quickly the interviews from Showcase artists are returned to me. That's why I have the Inspiration Feed. It's a collection of links that I have found inspiring, and I can update it as often as I like.

If you have any questions or comments, use the form below. Or you can email me at: muse@drewwilson.com"

Drew Wilson Portfolio

http://www.drewwilson.com/work/
"Art has been my passion since I was a kid. Everything from drawing & painting to videos & photography. I merged the traditional arts with the computer when my dad bought Adobe Photoshop 3. It's been my main platform for artistic expression ever since, and I have been designing websites with it since 1996. I am blessed to be able to make a living at what I love doing."

85+ Free Killer Resources Every Designer Should Know

http://www.snap2objects.com/2007/06/06/85-killer-resources-every-designer-should-know/
"Well the good news is that you just need courage to persist and the light of information to scare those monsters away.

You got the courage. I got the Info.

Here I’ll give the info that could take you ages to find by yourself or another designer to tell (maybe because of lack of time or selfishness). I tried to cover most of the aspects that will help you in your journey, in a total of 15 aspects. Let’s start with some healthy tips for images."

Branding Strategy: Branding Judgement vs. Luck

http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2007/09/branding-judgem.html
"In 1968, 3M research scientist Dr Spencer Silver was attempting to improve the adhesives 3M uses on many of its tapes. By complete accident he managed to create a robust adhesive that could stick temporarily to any surface and then be removed and reapplied continually. Baffled but enthused, Dr Silver spent the next five years presenting his discovery to fellow 3M scientists."

Smashing Magazine: CSS Frameworks + CSS Reset: Design From Scratch

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/09/21/css-frameworks-css-reset-design-from-scratch/
"You don’t have to write the same CSS-code or (X)HTML-Markup over and over again. Whatever project you’re starting to work with, at some point you have to define classes and IDs you’ve already defined in your previous web-projects. To avoid unnecessary mistakes you might want to start not from a blank file, but from an almost “perfect” scratch. The latter might contain some basic definitions you’d write in your code anyway. However, once you’ve decided to create such a scratch, you need to make sure it is really bulletproof — besides, if the stylesheet also sets up optimal typographic rules and basic form styling you manage to kill two birds with one stone."

37 Signals Manifesto (from 1999)

http://37signals.com/manifesto
" The 37signals manifesto was our original site from 1999-2001. It's a collection of 37 nuggets of online philosophy and design wisdom. It's a great introduction to the 37signals' school of thought and a fun, quick read to boot."

Minimalism: New Minimalism in Web Interface Design

http://rainfall-daffinson.com/minimalism/
"Web minimalism has come back as a trend in the summer of 2007. Rainfall Daffinson adores the concept of minimalism, zen culture and the essence of things. We chose 24 moments of minimalism web interface design in the last decade, selected several quotes to easily define the minimalism and represent some of the best new minimalism websites."

CSS Globe: Floater

http://cssglobe.com/post.asp?id=955
"Here's a simple little trick on how to have make secondary content float to the right of the title. You can use this for variety of purposes like put an icon to rss feed or link to full article. View example page to get an idea :).

Why should this make any sense?

Usually when putting floated content, developers put it BEFORE the element in the flow. i.e. images before paragraphs. When it comes to titles (and we all use heading tags for that right? :) ) the situation is a tiny bit different. Title should represent the beginning of the section and anything related to it should come AFTER it in the markup structure. So "click for full story" links should be below the title not above it."

Devlounge: 30 Fonts You Want to Have

http://www.devlounge.net/articles/30-fonts-you-want-to-have
"Everyone has their own personal preferences when it comes to deciding what fonts to you one their designs. Depending on the project type and what the design is for, certain fonts make more sense in certain situations than in others. There are millions of fonts out there - not one list could ever list them all. Some are available for free, and others will cost you a little bit of dinero, but in the end, the larger font collection you have the better off you’ll be in ensuring you have the perfect font to meet your clients needs.

We’ve compiled our own list of 30 fonts we think you should have if you don’t already have them. The list is a mix of some popular ones as listed in a “Favorite Font” thread over at Mintpages, and some of them I have added myself because I happen to be a big fan on them. Each font also has a url listed where you can grab it from (damn we make it convenient for you huh?) Enjoy!"

Vandelay Web Design: Designing to Save Time on Maintenance

http://www.vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/designing-to-save-time-on-maintenance/
"If you’ve ever tried to redesign a website (especially one that was designed by someone other than yourself) you know how frustrating it can be. Even performing routine maintenance can be difficult if you don’t spend a lot of time on the site and you’re not familiar with the structure. There are a few things you can do when you design a new website that will make maintenance and a future redesign a much smoother and less painful process."

Branding Strategy: The Language of Branding: 'Brand'

http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2007/09/the-language-of.html
"It is important to establish a common brand management vocabulary in your organization. Establishing this common vocabulary will ensure that people can communicate with fewer misunderstandings. More importantly, it will help communicate and reinforce key brand management principles."

Esjay is nice: a portfolio

http://www.esj.com.au/
"Design portfolio of Simon Andrew James"

456 Berea St: 10 colour contrast checking tools to improve the accessibility of your design

http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200709/10_colour_contrast_checking_tools_to_improve_the_accessibility_of_your_design/
"At my dayjob we create the graphic design for most of our clients’ sites, but not for all of them. Sometimes the client or the client’s design agency creates the visual design and leaves conversion to HTML + CSS + JavaScript and CMS-ifying to us. When that happens, I almost always find problems with insufficient colour contrast in the design. Sometimes the problems are minor enough to be acceptable, but often there are areas that need to be adjusted."

Design Bliss: 7 Sites for Free Vector Logos

http://www.designbliss.com/2007/09/18/7-sites-for-free-vector-logos/
"There are a number of sites out there that provide free vector logos of major corporate brands, etc. These could be very useful for mock-ups or student portfolio work."

Alan Bernard's F&Ckn Mayhem!

http://www.alanbernard.com/mayhem/
"Alan Bernard is a self educated Google junkie that runs his humble business from home. He does stuff like web and graphic design and is also currently in the midst of setting up his own apparel company.
It all began when he decided that he wanted to stop working for someone else because although the pay was good, he was not able to satisfy his other needs, like proper sleep and self enrichment. Well, he still does not sleep much, even lesser at times, but he is much more happier these days, and walks around with a permanent grin on his face, which can be awkward sometimes."

Create a timed stylesheet using PHP

http://www.prdesign-studio.co.uk/HarryRoberts/index.php?2007/09/10/08/15/29-create-a-timed-stylesheet-using-php
"Hi all, as this is the first tutorial I've posted I thought I'd make it an easy one (for my sake). Basically this tiny PHP script will show you how to make a stylesheet switch depending on the time of day, similar to the one found here."

Yahoo! Food: 10 Tips For the Greatest Grilled Cheese

http://food.yahoo.com/blog/editorspicks/2430/10-tips-for-the-greatest-grilled-cheese
"It's the childhood favorite you never outgrow, the most comforting comfort food of all time -- the grilled cheese sandwich. American, cheddar, gouda ... whatever your pleasure, follow these ten tips from Laura Werlin, author of Great Grilled Cheese, and have yourself a slice of melted heaven."

iPhone-specific Web Development Misguided

http://www.christopherschmitt.com/2007/09/11/iphone-specific-web-development-misguided/
"Working with the web since 1993, Christopher Schmitt directs Heatvision.com, Inc., a small new media publishing and design firm. The author of several books, including CSS Cookbook and Photoshop in 10 Simple Steps or Less, Schmitt is also a contributor to many web development magazines."

Magic Tricks for iPhone

http://www.hottrix.com/software/index.shtml
"

Hottrix is the professional entertainer's leading supplier of wacky magic gimmicks and magic software titles. The instant download online shop accepting all major Credit Cards, our strong warranties and excellent customer support as well as the instant download section guarantee, that you will break the ice performing magic as successfully as thousands of satisfied magicians over the past decade.

"

Frenzic

http://frenzic.com/
"You are about to embark on a frenetic journey that will heighten your reflexes and get your pulse pounding. Minutes to learn and months to master, Frenzic is an all new puzzle-based game for Mac OS X.

• A fast-paced, addictive game that makes Tetris look like child's play
• Compete against your personal best or other players via the Internet
• Complete power-ups for increased abilities
• Climb through seven levels of Devotion from Newbie all the way to Frenzic Grandmaster!"

Bullet Madness / a free bullets project at Stylegala

http://www.stylegala.com/features/bulletmadness/
"Bullet madness is a list of 200 bullets, arrows and icons uploaded by our users.

A handy collection of bullets for your webdesign needs - these icons can add that little extra to your design and make your site stand out from the crowd.

You may use these icons as you wish, but since the bullets are uploaded by anonymous users, some of them might be subject of copyright law."

The Astigmatic One Eye Typographic Institute

http://www.astigmatic.com/
"One score and seven years ago on a bitter Winter evening, Ezra and Madeleine Bonislav, exhausted from a long voyage across the Atlantic, stepped foot on American soil to begin their new life together.

Ezra was a studious man with an acutely irritating propensity for mathematics and sciences came from a noble family in Warsaw, Poland. His father William "Goodie" Bonislav was the original creator and patent holder of the first plastic hair pick and other personal grooming devices."

Brandient

http://brandient.com/
"A brand is ultimately a delicate yet powerful sign. But not all signs are brands.

Consumers need their daily intake of aspiration and some certainty in a world of endless choice.

Reputation is a reward of vision. If brands are not for value, they are for nothing.

It takes time and fervor, from the single acorn to the living forest, to build a sign of value.

This is the story we believe in."

77 Resources to Simplify Your Life as a Web Designer

http://www.vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/resources-simplify-design/
"77 Resources to Simplify Your Life as a Web Designer"

Mashable: 5000+ Resources to Do Just About Anything Online

http://mashable.com/2007/09/08/5000-resources-to-do-just-about-anything-online/
"Since May 2007, we’ve been bringing you resources and tools to be more productive on the web. Due to popular demand, we’ve brought all these lists together into one gigantic meta-list: 5000+ Resources to Do Just About Anything Online. Enjoy! And don’t forget to subscribe to Mashable for the latest web news and resources."

Ask Metafilter: Website design copyrighted?

http://ask.metafilter.com/71121/Website-design-copyrighted
"Q: How much protection is there for unique website designs (not content like text or graphics) but layout, colors, etc? If I model my website on someone else's that I like, am I in hot water?"

NY Times: Assessing the ‘Surge’: A Survey of Baghdad Neighborhoods

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/09/06/world/middleeast/20070907_BUILDUP_MAIN_GRAPHIC.html
"To study the ground-level effects of the American troop buildup, reporters and video journalists for The New York Times visited Baghdad's neighborhoods, interviewing residents, Americans on patrol and Iraqi officials. To explore the videos and written reports, select a neighborhood below."

A new typography.com: Hoefler & Frere-Jones (H&FJ)

http://www.typography.com/home/index.php
"It’s the all new typography.com.
New features, new resources, new ideas, new tools — and, of course, new fonts. Come see what’s inside."

Information Architects Japan: A Word on Design Value

http://www.informationarchitects.jp/a-word-on-design-value
"The other day we got a telephone call from a guy that wanted to “exponentially increase” his Internet performance. He had an existing, custom built CMS and he wanted a complete re-design and re-build. We met with him, and he explained that he would like us to “design everything, ready to program”. He would then send our “detailed plans” to India and let a cheap team program the whole site.

His budget? $1000

Our first suggestion to go with our off the rack solution for small companies didn’t really satisfy him. The naivety of this particular guy – all in all a very nice and polite person by the way – was refreshing, but at the same time it border-lined on insolence: He figured that he could hire an information architect for a thousand bucks to fully sketch out a CMS and eCommerce solution, and then hire a programming team in India to produce it for another $3,000. He figured that all he needed to do is invest $4,000, crack the whip and then see the money roll in."

Web Designer Mag: Top Ten CSS Sites

http://www.webdesignermag.co.uk/images/wd_features/top_tens/css/css.html
"Web Designer is the only serious tutorial-driven monthly publication dedicated to online
creativity available in the UK. Each issue boasts over 25 pages of regular Dreamweaver, Flash, and Photoshop walkthroughs across a wide range of topics and disciplines from some of the country’s most knowledgeable technology writers."

Multi color SIFR

http://webdesign.maratz.com/lab/multi_color_sifr/
"Multi-color sFIR implementation is easy – just add sEmColor:"#FF4400", sStrongColor:"#FF0000" and sSpanColor:"#EE6600" into you named argument call function at the bottom of the .html file and if the script finds a strong, em or span elements, each one will be colored3. And they can be nested, too."

60 Advanced Adobe Photoshop Tutorials

http://www.dennisplucinik.com/blog/2007/08/28/60-advanced-adobe-photoshop-tutorials/
"The techniques shown are advanced level and require more than just technical knowledge of Photoshop, they actually require talent and knowledge of design, layout, balance, color theory, subtlety, etc. If you are an advanced user, I hope you find these techniques inspiring and helpful."

7 time saving Photoshop tips for web designers

http://www.jay-han.com/2007/08/29/7-photoshop-time-saving-tips-for-web-designers/
"As a Photoshop user for more than several years, although cannot consider myself as Photoshop experts, but I did had some tips and guides for Photoshop beginners and fresh web designers to do stuff faster and more efficient in Photoshop. With this tips, you can know more about Photoshop and learn some essential time saving skills. Here I have 7 in total."

CSS+Javascript power. Fancy menu

http://devthought.com/cssjavascript-true-power-fancy-menu/
"When it comes to creating the navigation part of your Website, the first thing you might think of is an unordered list that you style as tabs. Lately, such navbars are everywhere, as many people believe they’ll make their site more Web 2.0-compatible. Personally, I just think they’re semantically better and accessible.

In this article I’ll go through the creation of a custom navigation bar with some cute Javascript effects that will certainly impress your friends. Thanks to the great Mootools library, this beauty is contained in 1.5kb. Not only that, but it’s also cross browser (tested on Internet Explorer 6/7, Firefox and Safari) and accessible!"

FastFind Menu Script

http://labs.activespotlight.net/jQuery/menu_demo.html
"This page demonstrates the ActiveSpotLight FastFind Menu Script. ActiveSpotLight provides the javascript related to this project under the BSD License (See Below). This software is provided as-is and without any warranty. ActiveSpotLight assumes no responsibility for any loss or damage as a result of using this software, please do so at your own risk.

This script is still under development and has been tested in FF1.5-2, IE 6-7, Opera 9, and Safari. The current build has the following issues in Safari: Arrows do not appear to show in-menu versus external links, as appear in the other browsers."

polldaddy: Free polls for your blogs, websites, MySpace, hi5 and Facebook accounts with PollDaddy.com

http://www.polldaddy.com/
"PollDaddy is an online tool, which allows you to create free polls and place them on your website, blog, MySpace, hi5, Friendster or Xanga account or anywhere online that you can paste a bit of JavaScript or Flash!"

Code Central: YUI Based Lightbox - Revisited

http://thecodecentral.com/2007/08/17/yui-based-lightbox-revisit
"In the previous article of YUI based lightbox, I've shown you how easily one can create a lightbox using YUI's Dialog class. Although the lightbox we created in the previous article has the basic skeleton of a lightbox, it still lacks some crucial features and it looks quite ugly too. Luckily YAHOO released YUI 2.3.0 not long ago, which included a eye candy skin (sam) that is more attractive than one bundled by default. We will use the new skin for the revised lightbox. Since we don't need all the features provided by the Dialog class (e.g., submitting data), I replaced the Dialog class with Panel for the container class of the new lightbox."

Colour Lovers: Landmark Colors: Peru (Inspiration & Support)

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/09/04/landmark-colors-peru-inspiration-support/
"Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. The estimated population in July 2007 was 28,674,757. Although the culture is primarily Amerindian and Spanish, traditionally, it has been influenced in its cooking, clothing, music, dance, and art by a number of African, Asian, and European ethnic groups. Because of this blending, Peru is a country so vibrant in colour."

eBizMBA: 25 Most Popular eBusiness Websites

http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/ebusiness.html
"Here are the 25 Largest eBusiness Websites ranked by a combination of Inbound Links, Google Page Rank, Alexa Rank, and U.S. traffic data from Compete and Quantcast. Although no traffic metrics are completely accurate we do believe the data below to be useful for gauging relative audience size.[The websites included on this list that focus on specific aspects of ebusiness, like SEO or General Tech, have been selected to our "eBusiness" list based on the frequency of general eBusiness news & info that they publish. To that end we would like to mention three great publications, SEOMOZ, SearchEngineWatch, & Search Engine Roundtable who did not make this list becuse of their exclusive SEO focus.]"

Colour Lovers: Landmark Colors: The Great Barrier Reef

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/08/27/landmark-colors-the-great-barrier-reef/
"The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is the world’s largest coral reef system, composed of roughly 3,000 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for 2,600 kilometers (1,616 mi) over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometers (132,974 sq mi). The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia, and can be seen from space."

Luke W Interface Designs: Primary & Secondary Actions in Web Forms

http://www.lukew.com/resources/articles/PSactions.asp
"In recent months, I’ve been working on refining the design recommendations in my upcoming book, Web Form Design Best Practices, through actual usage data. To that end, I’ve had the pleasure of working with London-based usability firm Etre on several eye-tracking and usability studies focused on specific aspects of Web form design. One of these tests focused on the distinction between primary and secondary actions."

Boxes and Arrows: Foundations of Interaction Design

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/foundations-of
"Somehow, products, services, and systems need to respond to stimuli created by human beings. Those responses, need to be meaningful, and clearly communicated and in many ways provoke a persuasive and semi-predictable response. They need to behave."

Merlin Mann: Google Tech Talk: Inbox Zero

http://www.43folders.com/2007/07/25/merlins-inbox-zero-talk/
"Video for Merlin’s “Inbox Zero” talk"

Web Appers: Sweet Titles Transparent and Fading Tooltips

http://www.webappers.com/2007/08/23/sweet-titles-transparent-and-fading-tooltips/
"Sweet Titles Fading Tooptips is not a knock-off from NICE Titles nor is it trying to improve on Dunstan’s revised attempt. And it most definitely isn’t ripped from one of those event-handler infested scripts from Dynamic Drive . No. It’s none of those. Instead he had two goals for this script"

Free CSS Templates: Contact Forms Showcase

http://www.free-css-templates.com/webdesign/contact-forms-showcase/
"Often we neglect the design of contact forms, so here is the contact forms showcase that will give you some inspiration ;)"

Smashing Magazine: 20+ Free And Fresh Icon Sets

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/08/25/20-free-and-fresh-icon-sets/
"User-friendly icon sets are always nice to look at and useful to have ready to hand. Since effective designers guide their users’ attention using visuals, icons can (and probably should) be used in almost every project you are or will be working on. Whether for an illustration, sketch, site or weblog - used moderately, icons can point users’ attention to the key-aspects of an article or specific site sections and communicate the message of the site in a more effective way."

43 Folders: Better Presentations

http://www.43folders.com/2007/08/23/better-presentations/
"Since my Google Tech Talk (previously) caught fire last month (it’s gotten over 100,000 views so far), I’ve been receiving a lot of really nice email, comments, and questions about how I put my presentations together. I’m happy to oblige."

Colour Lovers: Color inspiration from coffee and tea

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/08/24/color-inspiraton-from-coffee-and-tea/
"There is a very clever mug that has been popping up on all my favorite sites lately (Neatorama, swissmiss, Gizmodo ). The MyCuppa “mugs to help you mix your favourite brew to just-how-you-like-it by matching the colour guide on the inside. Available in Tea or Coffee styles.”"

Veerle's Blog: A CSS styled table version 2

http://veerle.duoh.com/blog/comments/a_css_styled_table_version_2/
"In 2005 I wrote an article about styling a table with CSS. After receiving so many requests I finally decided to give in and write another tutorial. Seems like a popular topic and an interesting one to share some tricks on how you can nicely style them. This article is about the proper usage of tables, for tabular data. How you can implement them with accessibility in mind and how to make them appealing for the eye using CSS."

Typographica.org. A journal of typography.

http://typographica.org/
"Typographica is a journal of typography featuring news, observations, and open commentary on fonts and typographic design."

3point7designs: WEB TYPOGRAPHY - 40 SOURCES FOR INSPIRATION AND INSTRUCTION

http://www.3point7designs.com/blog/2007/08/16/web-typography-50-sources-for-inspiration-and-instruction/
"CSS, javascript, and flash has brought the web design community a long way in what we are capable of doing when it comes to typography. However simply being ABLE to take advantage of rich typography doesn’t mean that we all know how. So below are some resources to make it easier to find typographic inspiration and instruction."

Idents.tv

http://idents.tv/blog/
"If you interested in general typography on screen, idents.tv at http://idents.tv/blog/ has TV idents (who’d’ave guessed it) which are usually good use of typography."

Motionographer

http://motionographer.com/
"Motionographer (pronounced like “oceanographer”) seeks to be a source of inspiration for filmmakers, animators and designers by sharing:

• outstanding work from studios, freelancers and students
• feature stories that give readers a closer look at influential studios and individuals
• commentary that sparks discussion or introspection about the creative process
• miscellaneous items that Motionographer contributors find interesting

Motionographer isn’t just about motion graphics. Inspiration can come from anywhere, and the Motionographer contributors hope to provide you with interesting material regardless of the medium in which it was created."

Smashing Magazine: 10 Designer’s Checkpoints To Be Aware Of

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/08/10/10-designers-checkpoints-to-be-aware-of/
"Automatic tests, checks and analysis services can be extremely valuable if you’re looking for bugs or try to avoid them. To make sure everything is just the way you think it should be, you need validators. To improve the value and quality of your content, you need to be able to analyze the behaviour of your visitors. And to perform better in the future you have to know exactly, what your competitors are doing, how they’re doing it and what you should learn from them."

Smashing Magazine: Data Visualization: Modern Approaches

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/08/02/data-visualization-modern-approaches/
"Data presentation can be beautiful, elegant and descriptive. There is a variety of conventional ways to visualize data - tables, histograms, pie charts and bar graphs are being used every day, in every project and on every possible occasion. However, to convey a message to your readers effectively, sometimes you need more than just a simple pie chart of your results. In fact, there are much better, profound, creative and absolutely fascinating ways to visualize data. Many of them might become ubiquitous in the next few years."

Collection of all Calvin and Hobbes strips, in chronological order

http://www.marcellosendos.ch/comics/ch/index.html
"Calvin & Hobbes was published from Nov 18th, 1985 to Dec 31st, 1995. Here's the collection."

Smashing Magazine: 404 Error Pages: Reloaded

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/08/17/404-error-pages-reloaded/
" Three weeks ago we’ve showcased some of the most beautiful, creative and user-friendly 404 Error Pages; we’ve collected some interesting ideas one can use to help out the visitors once they got lost ony your page. We’ve also asked our readers to design their own 404 pages and promised to present the best solutions afterwards."

StyleGrind:

http://stylegrind.com/
"Style Grind is the brain dump of Peter Dorsi (who also runs Age of Conan News) who just needed a place to find great web news in one convenient spot. We hope you enjoy the site and if you have a site with some tutorials or a great design, pass it along to us.

We are hosted on lighting fast PHP and Ruby on Rails servers from Site5."

Freelance Switch: 34 Places to Get Design Inspiration - Online and Off

http://freelanceswitch.com/working/34-places-to-get-design-inspiration-online-and-off
"Everyone who hasn’t encountered designer’s block, raise your hand. Just as I thought. Well then, chances are you could use some places to get inspiration for those days when the pixels aren’t aligned and your mouse finger isn’t clicking like it should. We’ve compiled a list, online and off to serve up everything from logos to icons to art to fashion to just inventive ideas to get your mind ticking. So kick back and let your senses run wild as we bring you 15 websites packed full of inspiration, 10 must-have books and 9 things to do to get inspired."

Pixel Implosio - portfolio

http://pixelimplosion.com/portfolio/
"The Pixel Implosion is a small, Denver-based graphic factory. It's so small that, in fact, Bobby Andersen is the sole employee. Despite this lack of manpower, the 'implosion and Bobby Andersen have been known to create all sorts of things for clients, such as interfaces, web sites, icons or anything else that has been thrown at them. The company has built its foundation on the pursuit of pixel perfection and a never-ending ambition."

Manhole covers

http://manhole-covers.net/galerie/slide.php3?f=0
"These manhole covers have been prior chosen for their esthetic interest. So, this galerie doesn't pretend to be an exhaustiv view of french old patterns. Models slightly similars or without visual attraction are simply not shown yet.
The city name mentionned for each, is the name of the place where the picture has been taken
Some of these models have been removed since I made these pictures, during the 80's, and can't be seen anymore in situ."

Colour Lovers: Colors of the World's Best First Class Experiences

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/08/16/colors-of-the-worlds-best-first-class-experiences/
"Have you ever flown first class? Have you ever really wished you could? Well, the top ten from Forbes’ World’s Best First Class article seems to shoot down every actually-comfortable, well-padded seat I’ve walked past. From bed-chairs to private nooks, Heaven seems to recline at 40,000ft."

Foldspy: Get the most from your ads with FoldSpy.

http://www.foldspy.com/
"Put simply, FoldSpy is a tool for finding out the actual dimensions of your visitor’s browser window. This data was surprisingly difficult to get your hands on, but not any more. Not only does FoldSpy give you access to this data but it presents it in completely new way, the data from FoldSpy is overlayed on your site."

portfolio.com: Bloomberg makeover

http://www.portfolio.com/infographics/2007/06/terminals
"These terminals area a must-have for any Wall Street warrior, but they're also unsightly. We asked three top design firms-IDEO, thehappycorp, and Ziba Design-to put the Bloomberg's interface through a rigorous redesign."

WebAppers: Javascript/CSS progress bar

http://www.webappers.com/progressBar/
"Sometimes, when we are building websites and web applications, we need a percentage bar / progress bar to show the progress of a specific task. However, it is very difficult to find a working and easy solution without using Flash. Therefore WebAppers have created a simple Javascript based Percentage Bar / Progress Bar which is inspired by Bare Naked App. Bare Naked App taught us how to display Percentage Bar with 2 images only by using CSS. And then I used a little bit of Javascript to make it more interactive. You can use it anywhere you can think of. Use your Imagination, I am sure you will find it useful somewhere."

Functioning Form: Strategic Skills of Designers

http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?568
"In a recent workshop, I outlined how designers can apply their existing skills to strategic work. The natural follow on question is: what are these skills?"

Rob Goodlatte: JUSTIFYING DESIGN DECISIONS

http://www.robgoodlatte.com/2007/06/27/justifying-design-decisions/
"The craft of graphic design is replete with ratios, rules of thumb, and math—all an attempt to rationalize decisions that otherwise fall to subjectivity. Finding justification for design decisions is important to me—I want to bring purpose and intent to my work and depend less on taste and opinion. But I often find myself designing on impulse or intuition—pushing pixels around the screen or lines down a sketchpad with no structure, no rationalization— just because it “looks right”. That haphazard and experimental process gives me a lot of freedom, but it isn’t really design."

Digital Web Magazine: Corporate Web Standards

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/corporate_web_standards/
"We’ve all heard the fairy-tales about the prince kissing the princess, but the story just ends there; they both live happily ever after, riding off into the sunset, never to be seen again. But in real life, that’s just the beginning of the story—after the kiss and the sunset comes the hard work and the real relationship."

CSS Juice: 30 Weblogs with Grid Based Design

http://cssjuice.com/30-weblogs-with-grid-based-design/
"Grid based designs is more popular and hot in the internet. A basic well designed grid systems layout can make your designs not only more beautiful and legible, but more usable. A grid is made up of vertical and horizontal lines and is the foundation of nearly every type of visual media. The structure is there to shape the content into proportions that are pleasing to the eye. Below is the top 30 weblogs with grid based designs. Besides, i also searched some tutorials about grid designs for you to further reading."

artzmania: artwork showcase for global designers

http://www.artzmania.com/
"Artzmania is an independent venture showcasing outstanding international creativity and culture. With blazing passion for design, it is the latest platform for Designer's Territory to inspire, express and share with fellow art enthusiast profiling diversified design.

Founded in January 2007 by a team of arts and graphic enthusiasts in Malaysia and exclusively supported by Spotbit.com, Artzmania.com was officially launched in January 2007

This super e-zine has attracted international designers in their quest to showcase their superb creativity through design and arts and is distributed on worldwide platform for all walks of life to enjoy. It is widely recognized as one of the most successful free e-zine in the web.

Artzmania team welcomes all who enjoy this super e-zine and thank all the contributors. If you would like to be part of them in contributing your design and arts, we welcome you to contact us. If you have general query about Artzmania, please send your email here."

Digital Web Magazine: Designing the "Future Of" Sites

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/designing_the_future_of/
"I’m passionate about branding. At my previous company, Apples To Oranges, we were fortunate to be able to do a lot of branding and identity projects—either creating new brands, or evolving existing ones. As designers, our work never sits in a vacuum. Each piece is part of the brand’s visual identity. It’s our job to ensure the sites we design not only look good, but also reinforce and communicate the message of the brand."

Spotbit: Paperless publishing

http://www.spotbit.com/main/inside_search.php?&title=3
" Spotbit empowers you to publish, sell your e-books in a fast, easy and free method.

Spotbit.com provides paperless solution to publishing industry which end result is an E-Book make available in a unique and standalone digital format that is different from most formats available in the current market."

Smashing Magazine: 80 Beautiful Typefaces For Professional Design

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/08/08/80-beautiful-fonts-typefaces-for-professional-design/
"You don’t like to scroll? Be prepared. (We warned you.)

Every now and again designers stumble upon the very same problem: the choice of a unique and beautiful typeface which manages to fulfill three basic tasks. Support the corporate identity, enrich the visual appearance and is compatible with the overall design. However, usually there are simply too many options you can consider, which is why you need time to find the option you are most comfortable with. Although the choice usually depends on clients’ requirements, it is necessary to have some pretty starting points for your font decision."

CSS Juice: Modern Navigation Menu Solutions

http://cssjuice.com/modern-navigation-menu-solutions/
"A stunning navigation menu can take your websites interface to the next level. At the previous post i had selected a complete list of free professional CSS navigation menus, just check out here if you are interesting. Here we presented some great and snazzy navigation menus that it might be useful for you to the next design projects. They are categorized to font hovering, graphical hovering, illustration, underline, artistic fonts, strike-through and miscellaneous. Don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any more nice examples that can be featured on this list."

maryland media: Logic Based Design - Design is 50% Selling

http://blog.marylandmedia.com/2007/08/logic-based-design-design-is-50-selling/
"Imagine a world were design wasn’t subjective; imagine a world were design intentions were in-sync with design executions. A design’s worst enemy is not the input of a non-designer – a design’s worst enemy is when its designer can’t sell it. Design is only half the process, being able to sell that design is where the real work gets done. Without being able to sell your design to its audience; your design intentions will never match its execution."

design snips: collecting snippets of good design

http://designsnips.com/?feed_src=27
"design|snips first days have been very successful and both the website’s design and concept have gotten a very favorable response. We’ve already broken past the 200 subscriber count!

Thanks to everyone who’s been visiting and submitting, don’t worry, improvements and feature additions are on the way."

modern life: Six of the best: Recommended Reads

http://www.modernlifeisrubbish.co.uk/article/six-of-the-best-recommended-reads
"Summer has always been somewhat of a quiet time on the blogging front, with folk jetting off on holiday and enjoying the sunshine - anything other than being cooped up indoors writing."